Door operating mechanism



July 11, 1933. w. J. ELLIS 1,918,091

DOOR OPERATING MECHANI SM Filed Oct. 15, 1950 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 mwllmz's, iifWij 0R ill W ATTORNEY July 11, 1933. J ELLIS 1,918,091

DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 15, 1930m'zzz'mJZzzz;

WITNESS;

July 11, 1933. w. J. ELLIS DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM 4 Sheets-Sheet 3Filed Oct. 15, 1930 7/ 5/50: JEzzzJ,

INVENTOR A-r-ronruev July 11, 1933. w J ELLHS 1,91,911

DOOR OPERATING MECHANI SM Filed Oct. 15, 1930 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 77 2"?ZiaFZJE Z ZZ'S,

INVENTOR ATTORNEY bolt retracted.

Patented July 11, 1933 mister WILLIAM J. ELLIS, OF STEELE, ALABAMA noon.OPERATING MncHANIs Application filed-October 15, 1920. semi N0. 88,971.p

This invention relates to 'dooroperating mechanisms and has for anobject the provision of means whereby'the weight of a vehicle isutilized for releasing a pair of doors when closed and automaticallyopening the same and holding them in open position so that the vehiclecan pass within a garage and thereafter the doors will automaticallyclose, the 'vehic'le when within the garage, by its weight, will preventintrusion from without as the mechanism outside of the garage will berendered inoperative. V 1

Another object of the invention is the provision of means formanuallyunlocking and opening the doors. a 7

Another object of the invention is the pro: vision of means of the abovecharacter which are. simple-in construction, reliable and ellicient inuse, and may be readily installed.

lVith the above and other objects in view', the invention furtherincludes the following novel features and details of construction, to behereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, and pointed outfin the appended claims.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a horizontal sectional view taken throng-haportion of a garage or building with the invention applied.

F igure 2 is a section on the line 22 of Figure 1. V

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2, but with the doors in openposition.

Figure at is an enlarged fragmentary ver-, tical sectional viewillustrating the door locking mechanism, the latter being in lockedposition.

Figure 5 is a similar View with the locking Figure 5A is a fragmentaryvertical sectional view illustrating manually operated means toreleasethe doors.

Figure 5B is a fragmentary elevationof the same.

Figures 6 and 7. are fragmentary sectional views taken respectively onthe lines 6-6 and 7-7 of Figure 4:, the dotted lines in Figure 7illustrating the retracted position of the locking bolt. w i

Figure 8 is a sectional 8'8 of Figure 2.

Figure 9 is a similar View with the bolt operating platform depressed.

Figure Figure 3.

Referring to the drawings in detail whereview on the line in likecharacters of reference denote corresponding parts, the referencecharacters 11 and 12 indicate a pair of doors which are 69 hingedly'mounted for horizontal swinging movement as shown at 13. One edge of thedoor 11 is'prov ded with a strip l l which overlaps the ad acent edge ofthe door 12 so that when the doors are closed, the door 11 will'controlopening movement of the door 12. ihe doors are yielding y held in closedposition by means of a spring 15.

" The doors 11' and 12 may represent the doors of a garage, a portion ofthe walls of which are indicated at 16, but'obviously, the invention maybe applied to doors of various types.

The doors are held in closed position by means of a spring tensionedlocking bolt l7 which is mounted for vertical,slidingmovement in ahousing 18 and this bolt is adapted to engage a keeper 19' which ispivotally mounted as shown at 20 upon the door 11.

The bolt 17 "operates within a recess 21 pro- 30 vided at the entranceof the garage and the casing 18 is relatively stationary.

Extending into this recess 21 is one end of a rock shaft 22, this end ofthe shaft being mounted for rocking movement in a bearing an arm2 isrigid with this end of the shaft 22 and this arm has a pivotal slidingconnection 25 with the bolt 17, so that vertical swinging movement ofthe arm 24 Will impart a vertical sliding movement tothe bolt 17. Theother end of the shaft 22 extends away from the doors and its'remote endis mounted for rocking movement in abear- 26 which is carried by adepressible bar 4 end as shown M28 and extends transversely beneath oneend of a depressible platform 29.

upper end is positioned above the bar 27 and 100 10 is a sectionon theline10'lO of 55 This bar is pivotally mounted at one is normallyelevated therefrom by a coiled spring 29 mounted between the said barand said platform. 'The shaft 22 is provided with a crank arm 31 whoseend extends beneath the platform 29, so that when this plat form isdepressed, the shaft 22 will be rocked. Rocking movement will draw thebolt 17 downward so as to disengage the same from the keeper 19,whereupon the door 11 will be released and both doors may be opened. The

keeper 19 is provided with a beveled extremity 33 so. that when the door11 moves inward, the keeper will ride upon the inclined upper end of thebolt so as to engage said bolt. The bar 27 is yieldingly held againstclownward movement by means of a spring 34, and the free end of this barengages the upper face of an arm 35, which is pivotally mounted shown at36.

Secured to the free end of the arm,-35 is one end of a'fiexible memberor cable 37, which is trained over a guide pulley 38. The other end ofthis flexible member is secured to the inner end of an arm 38' which ismounted for pivotal movement as shown at 39. Pivotally secured to thearm 38 as shown at 40 is one end of a link 41 and the opposite end ofthis link is pivotally secured to the door 11 as shown at 42.

Rigid with the door 12 is an inwardly and laterally inclined arm 43which is positioned adjacent the top of the door, and the outer end ofthis arm has pivotally connected thereto one end of a rod 43 The otherend of the rod is pivotally secured to the door 11 as shown at 44. V I

The platform 29 forms one section of an approach to the garage and isdesigned to receive the wheels upon one side of the vehicle. I Aplatform 45 forms another section of the approach and extends from theplatform 29 to the door 11. One end of the platform 29 rests upon arelatively short bar 46 which is hingedly secured as shown at 47 tothefree end of the bar 27, while the adjacent end of the platform 45 restsupon a beam 48 which in turn rests directly upon the bar 27. The bar 46will be depressed in advance of the bar 27 and this bar 46 is permitteda slight downward movement before downward movement of the bar 27occurs. An approach section 49 is arranged parallel with the platforms29 and 45, so that a vehicle approaching the garage will engage theapproach.

The front wheel of the vehicle will first depress the platform 29, andinitial downoutward to the dotted line position shown in Figure 2.Continued movement of the vehicle will depress the platform 45, so thatthe bar 27 will move downward and will depress the arm 35, whereupon, apull will be exerted upon the cable or flexible member 37 so as to swingthe arm 38 outward upon its pivot 39. This will swing the door 11outward, and through the connections 43 and 43, the door 12 willlikewise be swung outward.

The doors will be held in this position as long as the platform 45 isdepressed, and in order to prevent sudden closing movement of the doorsunder the action of the spring 15, the invention provides a rock shaft'50 which is mounted for rocking movement in bearings 51. This shaft 50has a central offset portion 52 which normally rests within a recess 53,extending transversely of the upper face of the platform 45. One end ofthe shaft 50 carries an angularly arranged arm 54 and whose outerextremity is provided with a hook 55. This hook is adapted to engageWithin the socket of a keeper 56 which is carried by the door 11 so thatwhen the door 11 is swung outward and the offset portion 52 of the shaft50 is subsequently depressed, the arm 52 will be swung from the positionshown in Figure 2 to the position shown in Figure 3, so that the hook 55will enter the socketed member 56 and hold the doors against closingmovement. a

When the vehicle is driven into the garage, the wheels will engage acrank arm 57 which is carried at one end of a rockshaft 58, the

latter beingmounted for rocking movement,

in bearings 59. This shaft 58 also carries an arm 60 and this arm isconnected by means of a link 61 with one end of the arm 24. The bolt 17being in retracted position, the crank arm 57 of the rock shaft 58 will0ccupy the osition shown by the dotted lines in Figure of the drawings.However, when the crank arm 57 is depressed through the weight of thevehicle, the shaft 58 will be rocked so that the parts will occupy thefull line position shown in Figure 7 of the drawings.

With the parts in this position, the door 11 is still engaged by thehook 55 and in order to release the door, the shaft 50 is provided withan angularly disposed arm 62 which is adapted to extend beneath an arm63 which is rigid with and extends from the rock shaft 22. The depressedcondition of the crank arm 57 and the rocking of the shaft 58 will holdthe bolt upward so that a safety device is within the garage andcontrolled by the weight of the vehicle on the crank arm 57 to preventintrusion from without by the operation of the platforms to cause theopening of the doors so that it will be impossible for a person fromwithout the garage to gain entrance thereto through the doors so long asthe vehicle maintains the crank arm 57 depressed. When the rear wheelsof a vehicle leaving the garage, reach the platform 29, this platformwill be depressed. The crank arm 31 will then be rocked to rock theshaft 22, whereupon the arm 63 will depress the arm 62 and rock theshaft 50, and retract or disengage the book from the socketed member 56.The doors will then close under the action of the spring 15, and as thebolt 17 has been projected upward by spring 29, it will be in the pathof the keeper l9 and this keeper will ride over and engage the upper endof the bolt so that the doors will be locked against. outward movementuntil released by depression of the platform.

In order to manually release the doors, the keeper 19 as pivotallyconnected to its outer end as shown at 64, one end of a link 65 and theopposite end of this link has a sliding connection 66 with one end of arod 67. The opposite end of this rod has a pivotal connection with thearm 68 which is secured to an extension 69 of a lock 70. This lock iscontrolled by a key 71 so that when the extension 69 is rotated, the rod67 will operate to lift the keeper 19 from engagement with the bolt. Dueto the connection 66 between the rod 67 and the link 65, the keeper 19may \1 move pivotally upward independent of the rod 67. When the doorsare manually operated and moved to open position the same can be heldopen in any desirable manner.

The invention is susceptible of various changes in its form, proportionsand minor details of construction and the right is herein reserved tomake such changes as properly fall within the scope of the appendedclaims.

Having described the invention what is claimed is 1. In a door operatingmechanism, a pair of hingedly mounted doors, means connecting said doorsfor simultaneous operation,

s rin means to close the doors a slidin l p D D mounted belt, a keepermovably secured to one of the doors to engage the bolt and hold thedoors closed, a normally elevated pivotal ly mounted bolt operatingplatform, means I operated by said platform and connected to the bolt toretract the latter when the platform is'depressed, a normally elevateddoor operating platform, a normally elevated depressible bar beneath thedoor platform and. 3

the doors to engage the bolt and hold the 7 doors closed, a normallyelevated pivotally mounted bolt operating platform, a rock.

shaft, means operatively connecting one end of the rock shaft andplatform to rock said shaft when the platform is depressed, weightoperated means to hold the doors in open position, spring operated meansto project the bolt into the path ofthe keeper, a weight operated meansremote from the first named weight operated means, an arm having asliding pivotal connection with the bolt and having one end secured tothe rock shaft, a link connecting the other end of the arm with, thesecond named weight operated means, and means carried by the rock shaftand engaging the door holding means to operate the latter and releasethe doors.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

WVILLIAM J. ELLIS.

